Character Experiences

[allonte]

We're trying to decide whether or not to take my daughter to a Character meal. She'll be 1 when we go. Would it even be worth it? Will she even know who they are by then?

 

[indigoxtreme]

No she won't know, in fact they may scare her at that age. I would wait even at age 4, we had to get DGD an authograph book to break the ice for her to go to a character.

 

[Matt]

My youngest daughter has loved character meals since she was a little before 2.

 

[ella6599]

My youngest DD was 8 months when we went (Crystal Palace) and she loved Pooh and Tigger. She probably had a better time than DD3, who we went to the breakfast for, but who was feeling crabby that morning. I'm not sure that it was typical though, since I think a lot of kids are scared by big characters at that age.

I wouldn't so it just for her...if you want to go for you, and accept that she might be clingy, and need to NOT meet the characters, then go for it

 

[UrsulasShadow]

Personally, I'd save it for when they're older. Took my DD when she was 3, and she was quite frightened of the characters, and my DS1.5 positively shrieked(and he's my easy-going child!). Of course, they were too young to remember any of it, although my DS, who's now 15, carried a fear of masks up into his preteen years. So, if there's any question about how they'll handle it, I'd say to wait. Save the money for when they're 5 or 6.

 

[msmayor]

One of the things folks look forward to is creating memories, and while it might be a nice memory for you a 1-year old will have absolutely no recollection of meeting Pooh or Tigger or any other character.

I say go to the character meal for yourself, if its what you really want to do. It won't cost anything for your 1-year old to be there.

Personal experience: when we took our two kids, my DD was 3 and my DS was almost 1. He was actually terrified of the characters because of their size. As long as they kept their distance, he would smile...but as those large heads approached he would start to scream. We did the character meals for our daughter, but after the first bad experience we made sure character greetings were done away from the table a little so as to not scare him.

It wasn't until our next trip when he was 4 that he greeted them without problem.

 

[Pugrpooh]

We took our then 16 month old to Crystal Palace just 3 weeks after she had major surgery. She was very clingy to me and wary of strangers after her experience. However, she absolutely LOVED the characters! We have such good memories from that trip! She celebrated her 2nd birthday at CP too and we went to Disneyland when she was 3. The only characters she wouldn't hug were Captain Hook and the genie from Aladdin, and the Beast. We are taking her to WDW for her 4th birthday in April and she can't wait to see all of them (including now the princesses). However, she still won't even look at Santa Claus! Our other two girls we took to WDW when they were 2 1/2 and just turned 1, and they loved the characters too. The older one cried when Pluto tried to kiss her with his tongue, but other than that, they've never been afraid of them. However, they didn't like Santa either.

 

[lovesdumbo]

We celebrated my DS's 3rd birthday at CP. He was a bit leary of the characters the entire trip. His birthday was the last full day and he finally warmed up to the characters as we left CP and he shouted good bye to Pooh as we left. We spent the next morning at AK and that was the first time he actually stood with any character for a photo and then we had to rush to the airport. My youngest was 11 months old on that trip and she LOVED Tigger at CP. She wouldn't look at any of the "face" characters at the other meals we attended for my oldest who was then 4 1/2. My youngest was nearly 3 on our most recent trip and she still loves the characters at CP and still won't go near the "face" characters. She loves to see the photos of herself with the Pooh characters from all of our trips. We've done breakfast, lunch, and dinner at CP and all 3 meals are great. I think breakfast is my favorite.